English Comprehension

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sidcupparent
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:05 am

English Comprehension

Post by sidcupparent »

What is the best way to do comprehension?

I was told by my new tutor that the foundation is lots of reading particular different types of books.

This is going to be challenge as my child is not into reading
VanillaLatte
Posts: 63
Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:22 am

Re: English Comprehension

Post by VanillaLatte »

Hi,

My both DC are not into reading but the effort has to be made for the comprehension. Which year is your DC into? What I did with mine is getting kindles for each of them with dictionary as English is not our first language. Oxford dictionary. Also changed the tutor as she made DS feel nervous, insecure and frustrated. Still testing the new tutor, but she is encouraging and he is calm and motivated.
FortyNinePence
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:06 pm

Re: English Comprehension

Post by FortyNinePence »

My DS is a bit of a reluctant reader. For us, it's been trying, trying and trying again to find books that engage him.

For every 20 I try, there will be 1 he engages with. There doesn't seem to be a common theme or genre he goes for. So we read that together, usually. And talk it through as we read it. Stop regularly, ask questions to check understanding.

I also did the Schofield and Sims comprehension books with him. My DS likes rushing, so for us it was crucial to get him to slow down, think about what he was reading, and then reread it before he even looked at the questions. To trust that he would have time, as he'd answer the questions much more quickly having invested the time upfront.

Inference was the hardest thing to teach. But we did find practice helped, as with most things.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: English Comprehension

Post by Daogroupie »

I don't think it is necessary to read avidly. Learning to deal with the the style of many different comprehension papers is important so you are prepared for many different approaches.DG
MerlinFromCamelot
Posts: 224
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:21 am

Re: English Comprehension

Post by MerlinFromCamelot »

I second Schofield and Sims. Love those books, not just comprehension, equally brilliant for maths imo.

DD2 reads loads and is good at comprehension so perhaps it does help if the DC reads widely. Having said that DD1 does not read at all. The only thing I can remember her reading for pleasure in the last 5 years or so are the "Twilight" books. :lol:

I find that if you make a DC read if they don't really want to do it they are more likely to skim read because they want it over and done with quickly and consequently that won't do anything to aid comprehension. I used to look for suitable newspaper and magazine articles and discuss the content with her after she had read them and/or ask questions.
I also used to get talking books from the library such as "Artemis Fowl" and listened to them together whilst we prepared the evening meal in the kitchen together. Once you get in to the story it really isn't as boring as it sounds.

It is also a good idea to start making a word bank when they come across new words. There are also good vocabulary builders such as "AE publication" but they are a bit more £££.

When DD1 started GS a few years ago the English teacher was shocked when I told her DD does not read books so it seems that our approach did work.
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